Total department, not previously authorized, $400,000.

Committee, we’re on Environment and Natural Resources, operations expenditures, forest management, special warrants, $47.411 million. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is the second of several very costly events. We’ve still to deal with the third one, the Mackenzie River water levels and what that’s costing us. But this is the third event that is completely consistent and in line with the impacts and consequences of climate change. In the space of a few minutes here we’ve been discussing now $67,411 million. Sorry, it’s a little bit more than that. Twenty million, it’s actually more than $20 million. These are very serious numbers that we’ll be looking at today and in the future.

When we talk about a reduced cushion of $92 million in our borrowing limit and we are dealing with unexpected expenditures of 40, 20, 50 and 20, that’s something like $160 million or something like that and we are just over halfway through the year. We know we could be up against it here.

The perspective is, I think, times are changing. When we look at our fiscal strategy over the seven years that I have been a politician, having to bump up and continually request an increase in our borrowing limit and so on, this is of some concern. I don’t see us yet reacting with the insights that this is in fact a changed world and so that’s of even greater concern.

One question I have on this, and this is a reality. We needed to spend these monies so I’m not arguing with that, and I do appreciate all the work that our fighters did on the forest fire front. I guess I have two questions. Is this the end of it for our fire budget this year or can we expect more expenditures to be discussed? Secondly, no operation this size is done without any hitches, and I believe there were some hitches that need to be reviewed and discussed so lessons can be learned. When can we expect that review to be done in a thorough way and reported to the House? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The final accounting is not done. We do have now a final number and we’ve provided the preliminary base numbers to committee, but there will be a requirement to come back for an additional $3.9 million in the winter session.

The annual comprehensive review and debriefing of the fire season that we’ve just finished is being done. We anticipate early in the new year being able to share that in detail with committee and the Legislature. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Committee, we’re on page 8, Environment and Natural Resources, operations expenditures, forest management, special warrants, $47.411 million. Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Chair, the fire season certainly was terrible down here on the south end of the Territories. Knowing the conditions, knowing that we might have had a bad fire season, knowing the conditions and the dryness, is there any other area that has similar conditions down here? People are saying that it’s so dry down in the south part of the Northwest Territories, it’s prime condition for a fire. If the fire does go, it is so dry it will take off really fast and it’s something that we were expecting. Given this and in follow-up to Mr. Bromley’s questions on the review and looking at all of the good things and all the worst of the fire season and given that we have no water – there are many factors – were these conditions for the perfect storm of fire season?

We had it here. We know the amount of money that we spent, and I’m very happy to hear that the Minister is going to involve the committee at some time through the review of asking questions or presenting the review to us on the fire in the south part of the Territories. Was this the season of all seasons of a perfect storm of fires that it was, as they say, waiting to be lit? We’re experiencing low water in the Mackenzie River this fall. There are a number of factors that come into play in this fire season. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member’s question is consistent. What he’s asking is consistent with the concerns being raised by Mr. Bromley about extreme fire events, not just fire events but extreme weather events, changing rain patterns. If you look, it’s hard not to see it wherever you look in the news. If it’s here, if it’s California, if it’s down in Brazil, it’s down in Africa, all over the world, if it’s not flooding there’s enormous long-term drought and unpredictability. To the issue of…(inaudible)…where they used to be able to predict whether within a fairly set range is gone for the most part.

This is the worst fire season we’ve ever had. We hope it remains on the record as the worst fire season we’ve ever known and that next season and those after will hopefully moderate, but we know now how extreme it can be. We have a bar that’s set and we now know what it could mean if we have a summer again like we just did. We’ll be having the discussions about how do we cope, the same as those areas are coping where there’s enormous fires or tidal surges that cost hundreds of billions of dollars in damage around the world and are tied again back to the weather and the climate change. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Yakeleya.

No, thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Committee, we’re on forest management, special warrants, $47.411 million. Agreed?

Wildlife, not previously authorized, negative $43,000.

Water resources, not previously authorized, negative $240,000.

Total department, special warrants, $47.411 million.

Total department, not previously authorized, negative $283,000.

Committee, we’ll move on to Department of Lands, operations expenditures, planning and coordination, not previously authorized, $23,000.